13 Thy shoots like a garden of pomegranates,
With precious fruits,
Cypresses and nards,
14 Nard and crocus,
Calamus and cinnamon,
With all sorts of frankincense trees,
- cessible fountain. It is better, with
the Sept., Syriac, Arabic, Chald., Vulg., upwards of fifty of Kennicott's MSS., and many modern commentators, to read [HE: g.an/], instead of [HE: g.al]. This is confirmed by the intensive phraseology of the shepherd, used in his addresses, which is produced by a repetition of the same words. Comp. supra, vv. 8, 9.
13. Thy shoots, &c. Having compared his loved one to a garden, the shepherd is anxious to show that the one she resembled is not of an ordinary character. It is an orchard full of the most costly trees, and producing the most delicious fruit. [HE: S/^eloHayik/^e], well rendered by the Sept. [GR: a)postolai/ sou]: and Kimchi, [HE: htpSTvt], thy shoots, branches (Gen. xlix. 21; Ps. lxxx. 12) is figuratively used for the members of the body, and not for "the children who shall spring from her," as Hodgson supposes. [HE: p.ar^ed.Es], found elsewhere only Eccl. ii. 5; Neh. ii. 8, has been derived by some from the Persian, and by others from the Sanscrit. There is no necessity, however, for seeking its etymology in other languages. The Hebrews, who had gardens at so early a period, would surely not borrow names for them from other nations. [HE: p.ar^ed.Es], according to the analogy of the quadriliteral [HE: p.ar^eS/Ez], is a compound of [HE: p.orad], to divide, and [HE: p.oras], to separate, to enclose; hence a protected, an enclosed place, a garden. This is corroborated by the fact that [HE: g.an/], a garden, is also derived from a root ([HE: g.onan/]), which means to separate, to enclose. Compare also the German and English, Gärten, garden, and Saalschütz, Archäelogie der Hebräer, vol. i. p. 117. And like many other Hebrew expressions, this word was adopted in other languages. [HE: rim.vOniym/], pomegranate-trees: the Hebrews frequently use the same expression to denote the tree and its fruit, see supra, ii. 3. [HE: p.^eriy m^egodiym/], i.q. [HE: p.ir^eyEy^e megod], precious fruits: when a compound idea is to be expressed in the plural, the governed noun only is often put in the plural form; e.g. [HE: b.Eyt 'obvOt], ancestral houses, Numb. i. 2; Gesen. § 108, 3. The precious fruits are those of the pomegranate-tree. The words [HE: k.^eporiym/ `im/ n^erodiym/], are still genitives to [HE: p.ar^ed.Es]. For [HE: k.Oper], and [HE: nEr^ed.^e], see supra, i. 12, 13.
14. Nard and crocus, &c. Both the ancient versions and modern commentators generally agree that by the word [HE: k.ar^ek.Om/=], which occurs only here, the well-known saffron plant is meant. Calamus ([HE: qoneh], reed, also written [HE: q^enEh bS/EOm/] and [HE: qoneh haT.vOb], sweet calamus, Exod. xxx. 23; Jer. vi. 20, [GR: ka/lamos a)rômatiko/s], Calamus odoratus), was well known and highly prized among the ancients, and was imported to Palestine from India (Jer. vi. 20; xxvii. 19); it was, however, also found in the valley of Mount Lebanon, (Polyb. v. 46; Strabo, xvi. 4). It has a reed-like stem, of a tawny colour, much jointed, breaking into splinters, and its hollow reed filled with pitch, like the web of a spider. The best, which, according to Pliny (Hist. Nat. xii. 12 or 48), grows in Arabia, diffuses around a very agreeable odour, and is soft to the touch (see Rosenmüller, Bib. Bot.; Winer, Bib. Dict.; Kitto, Cyclop. Bib. Lit. s. v.) Cinnamon ([HE: qin.omvOn/], [GR: ki/namon], Laurus cinnamomum), indigenous to Ceylon in the East Indies, and is called by the natives Karonda-gouhah; it is now, however, also cultivated on the Malabar coast, in the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, in China and Cochin-China. The cinnamon-tree, which grows on the coast, is generally about twenty or thirty feet high, and reaches a still greater height in groves: it is adorned with numerous boughs, bearing oval and laurel-like leaves, of a scarlet
